Mum’s ‘2 second’ trick to tidy pantry

The Sydney mum has more than 31,000 Instagram fans of her pastel pink kitchen and organised home.

Ms Meares, whose linen cupboard went viral in 2019, said organising her kitchen three years ago has helped her save precious time when cooking and cleaning.

“People think that it’s a big job,” she told news.com.au.

“(But) once you’ve done the job of organising it you really don’t have to do much else.

“Once it’s done, it’s done. It can get bit messy (but) you just put things back a little bit, it takes two seconds.”

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Ms Meares and her husband built their current home five years ago and from the beginning they wanted it to it be easy to organise.

“One thing I built this house for was to have storage, because that was one thing I didn’t have in my home as much of,” she said.

Ms Meares loves cooking so had wide drawers, both shallow and deep, installed in her new kitchen home.

It’s a design detail that has proved invaluable to Ms Meares as well as being a hit with her followers.

“So beautiful and functional,” one follower wrote, while another described them as a “work of art”.

“Those drawers are the best because you open it and you’ve got it right in front of you,” Ms Meares said.

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“It doesn’t move around in the drawers, it doesn’t get messy because once you put it in the spot if somebody pulls out a plate or a bowl, well there’s only one spot left for it.”

Her organisation continues in the pantry, where Ms Meares has used stands from Ikea so she has an easy view and access to what’s available.

Ms Meares uses glass jars with timber lids from Ikea and plastic ones from Freedom to store perishable dry food, writing the date on the bottom so she knows when to use them by.

Her wicker baskets from Kmart are what she uses to store any “overflow” or larger products.

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But Ms Meares’ favourite pantry detail is her spices, which she keeps on a stand in easy-to-see labelled jars from Pretty Little Designs.

Ms Meares cooks meals from scratch and said her pantry set up means she can grab whatever she needs in “two seconds”.

“It’s easy for me when I cook that I’m not trying to dig through baskets trying to find which spices I want to use, they’re right in front of me,” she said.

“It actually saves time in the long run.”

Her pantry, which Ms Meares estimates cost her $250 to do, has also made cleaning much easier, and she no longer throws out expired food that has become lost at the back of the pantry.

“In three years I took shelf by shelf to wipe it twice, in three years,” Ms Meares said. “Because everything has a home and the family knows if there’s a spot missing a container that’s where it goes.”

For others inspired to give their kitchen a home organisation overhaul, Ms Meares recommends that you start small.

“(Go) one drawer at a time for a start, get rid of things that you no longer use or want,” she said.

“Either donate or if they’re broken throw out obviously, or sell if they’re in good condition.”

Ms Meares also recommend people work out a storage solution that works for you rather than just emulating styles you liked online.

“Make it work for your family, that’s my biggest tip to everybody … everybody lives differently,” she said.